The invention relates to a record player comprising a turntable, a rotatable spindle which extends tangentially with respect to the rotational axis of the turntable, a motor for rotating the spindle during operation of the record player, and a carriage which is movable axially along the spindle and which carries a tone arm.
A record player of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,129,946. As it scans a record, for short intervals of time the tone arm of this known record player deviates slightly from the correct tangential position with respect to the turntable axis. In order to eliminate this tracking-angle error due to the the position of the tone arm, the tone arm must be displaced laterally by moving the carriage axially along the spindle, until the correct tangential position of the arm is restored. The rotating spindle, in conjunction with a number of wheels on the carriage, forms part of a displacement servomechanism, the mechanism being in principle driven by the spindle. This mechanism has a disadvantage that the wheels must be in an accurately defined position in order to obtain a correct movement of the carriage to the desired position. The high number of revolutions of the spindle may give rise to rapid wear of the wheels. Moreover, the presence of the wheels may complicate correct positioning of the tone arm relative to a record on the turntable. Furthermore, as a result of the construction of the carriage and the servomechanism vibrations may occur, which may, for example, be caused by the drive of the spindle and which may have an adverse effect on the correct operation of the tone arm.